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ROMAN ART
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See also:ROMAN See also:ART . (1) See also:Introductory: See also:History of See also:Recent See also:Research. —The scientific study of See also:ancient Roman art See also:dates from a comparatively recent See also:period. The See also:great artists of the See also:Renaissance, headed by See also:Raphael and See also:Michelangelo, showed no lack of appreciation for such See also:models as the bas-reliefs of See also:Trajan's See also:Column; and it is sufficient to name See also:Mantegna's " See also:Triumph of See also:Caesar " in See also:order to recall the See also:influence exerted by Roman See also:historical See also:sculpture upon their choice and treatment of monumental subjects; but their eyes were fixed on the See also:Greek ideal, however imperfectly represented by monuments then accessible, and the supremacy of this See also:standard became established beyond See also:challenge. In the 18th See also:century See also:Winckelmann, the founder of the See also:science of classical See also:archaeology, directed the gaze of students and critics towards the glories of classical Greek art, which he divined behind the copies which filled the palaces and museums of See also:modern See also:Rome; l and the rediscovery of the extant remains of that art, which began See also:early in the 19th century and still continues, has naturally absorbed the See also:attention of the great See also:majority of classical archaeologists. Nevertheless, towards the See also:close of the 19th century, when the See also:main lines of Greek See also:artistic development had been firmly traced and See also:interest was aroused in its later offshoots, critics were led to examine more closely the products of the Roman period. As early as 1874 See also:Philippi had published a study of Roman triumphal reliefs; 2 but his intention was to show that they were derived from the paintings exhibited on the occasion of a triumph—a theory which can no longer be maintained—and not to determine their See also:place in the history of art. In 1893, however, Alois Riegl published a See also:series of essays on the history of See also:ornament under the See also:title of Stilfragen, in one of which he expressed the See also:opinion that " there was in the See also:antique art of the Roman See also:Empire a development along the ascending See also:line and not merely a decadence, as is universally believed." This thesis was taken up two years later by See also:Franz Wickhoff in a See also:preface contributed to the See also:reproduction in facsimile of the illustrated MS. of See also:Genesis in the imperial library at See also:Vienna. Wickhoff contended that, whilst the art of the Augustan period was the See also:culmination of that which had flourished under the Hellenistic monarchies, it was succeeded by an outburst of genuinely Roman artistic effort, which reached the height of its achievement in the reliefs and portrait-sculpture of the See also:Flavian period, and gave See also:birth in the 2nd century A.D. to the monuments of the " continuous " See also:style of See also:representation exemplified by the imperial columns. Wickhoff's See also:work has become See also:familiar to See also:English readers through Mrs Strong's 1 The See also:eleventh See also:book of Winckelmann's Geschichte der Kunst, which deals with art under the See also:Romans, contains notable proofs of the author's sureness of See also:vision; for example, he divined the true date and See also:affinities of the reliefs in the See also:Villa See also:Borghese, after-wards wrongly attributed to the See also:time of See also:Claudius (see below). 2 " Ober See also:die romischen Triumphalreliefs and ihre Stellung in der Kunstgeschichte " (Abhandlungen der See also:sachs. Gesellsch. der Wissenschaften, vi., 1874).
excellent See also:translation, with copious illustrations, which appeared in 'goo; in the following See also:year Riegl published the first (which, by See also:reason of his untimely See also:death, remains the only) See also:volume of his See also:Late Roman See also:Industrial Art in See also:Austria and See also:Hungary, in the opening chapters of which he endeavours to show that the later transformations .of Roman art in the and and succeeding centuries after See also:Christ continue to See also:mark a definite advance. On the other See also:hand, the originality of Roman art under the Empire was called in quesion by Josef Strzygowski, whose first important work on the subject, Orient See also:oder Rom, appeared in go'. Strzygowski holds that even in the imperial period, Rome was receptive rather than creative; that what is termed " Roman imperial art " is in reality the latest phase of Hellenistic art, whose See also:chief centres are to be sought in See also:Asia See also:Minor, See also:Syria and See also:Egypt; and that this late Hellenistic art was itself gradually transformed by the invading spirit of the See also:East into that See also:Byzantine art which is See also:half Greek snd half See also:Oriental, but wholly un-Roman. The problem thus stated will presently be discussed; in the meantime it is to be noted that the See also:principal monuments which fall within our See also:province have been at length rendered accessible to students by a series of adequate reproductions. In sculpture, the reliefs of Trajan's Column have been published by Cichorius, and those of the column of See also:Marcus Aurelius by Petersen and others; in See also:metal-work, the treasure of Bosco Reale has been reproduced in the Monuments Piet, and that of See also:Hildesheim has been published by the authorities of the See also:Berlin Museum; a series of reproductions, including all the important examples of Roman See also:painting, is issued by the See also:firm of See also:Bruckmann under the super-vision of See also:Paul Herrmann; and the ancient paintings preserved in the Vatican library, which include some of the most famous examples of the art, were published and described by Dr Nogara in 1907. The discussion of the date to be assigned to the See also:Trophy of Trajan at See also:Adam-Klissi in the Dobruja, initiated by Adolf See also:Furtwangler, has led to a closer study of the remains of Roman provincial art; and the See also:discovery of the See also:foundations of the Ara Pacis Augustae at Rome, together with additional remains of its sculptured decoration, has given an impulse to the study of Roman historical monuments. In this See also: Both in See also:Etruria and in See also:Latium Greek artists were commissioned to decorate the temples in which See also:wood and terra-See also:cotta took the place of the See also:marble which See also:Greece alone could afford to use. In 496 B.C., according to tradition, two Greek artists, Damophilos and Gorgasos, decorated the See also:temple of See also:Ceres, See also:Liber and Libera with paintings and sculpture; when the temple was restored by See also:Augustus their terra-cotta reliefs were carefully removed and framed.' But most of the early sculp.ure preserved in Rome doubtless belonged to the " Tuscan " school, whose works See also:Pliny 2 quotes as See also:evidence that there was an art of statuary native to See also:Italy. It is true that Etruscan art was dependent for its motives and technique on Greek models; but in its See also:portraiture—notably in the reclining figures which adorn Etruscan sarcophagi—we can trace the uncompromising See also:realism and close attention to detail which are native to See also:Italian '11-.N. See also:xxxv. 154. 2H.N. xxxiv. 34; cf. 43; and see Quint. xii.'o,'.See also:soil; the fragments of temple-sculptures which have been preserved are of less value, since, if not the work of Greeks, they are entirely Greek in conception. Roman portraiture undoubtedly continues the Etruscan tradition. It was a See also:common See also:custom in Etruria to decorate the See also:urn containing the ashes of the dead with a lid in the See also:form of the human See also:head (such urns are called canopi), and the same See also:desire to See also:record the features of the departed produced the waxen masks, or imagines, which were preserved in the houses of the Roman See also:aristocracy. In See also:architecture, too, Roman builders learnt much from their Etruscan neighbours, from whom they borrowed the characteristic form of their temples, and perhaps also the prominent use of the See also:arch and vault. But the stream of Etruscan influence was met by a See also:counter-current from the See also:south, where the Greek colonies in See also:Campania provided a natural channel by which Hellenic ideas reached the Latin See also:race; and Roman architects soon abandoned the purely Etruscan type of temple for one which closely followed western Greek models. The conquests of the later See also:Republic, however, brought them into more See also:direct contact with the art of Greece proper. Beginning from 212 B.C., when See also:Marcellus despoiled See also:Syracuse of its principal statues, every victorious See also:general adorned his triumph with masterpieces of Greek art, whether of sculpture or of painting, and, when Philhellenism became the ruling See also:fashion at Rome, wealthy connoisseurs formed private collections See also:drawn from the Greek provinces—Greek craftsmen, moreover, were employed in the decoration of the palaces of the Roman nobles and capitalists, which scarcely differed from those of the great Hellenistic cities. Except in portraiture, there was nothing characteristically Roman in the art which flourished in Rome in the time of Caesar and See also:Cicero. But the remains of an See also:altar, preserved partly at See also:Munich and partly in the Louvre (See also:Plate II. fig. 'o), which is believed with See also:good reason to have been set up by Cn. Domitius See also:Ahenobarbus shortly before 30 B.c., furnish an early example of the historical, or, to speak more exactly, commemorative art, to whose development the Empire gave so powerful an impulse. On the one See also:face of the altar we find a Greek subject—the See also:marriage of See also:Poseidon and See also:Amphitrite,—on the other a Roman See also:sacrifice, the suovetaurilia, with other scenes from the See also:life of the See also:army. Augustus enlisted art, as he did literature, in the service of the new order. The remarkable technical dexterity which characterizes all forms of art in this period—See also:silver plate and See also:stucco decoration, as well as sculpture in the See also:round or in See also:relief—is purely Greek; but the form is filled with a new content. For Augustus determined to enlist art as well as literature in the service of the new regime, and this purpose was served not only by public monuments, such as the Ara Pacis Augustae (Plate II. See also:figs. 11-13), but by the masterpieces of the silversmith's and See also:gem-engraver's art (Plate VII. figs. 32-37). In the art, as in the literature of the Augustan See also:age, classicism was the dominant See also:note, and the See also:naturalism so congenial to the Italian temperament was repressed, though never extinguished. The result of this was that under the Julio-Claudian See also:dynasty See also:academic tradition filled the place of See also:inspiration, and Roman art failed to discover its vocation. A See also:change came under the Flavian emperors. The painters who decorated with See also:fairy landscapes the walls of Roman palaces, untrammelled by the conventions of See also:official art, introduced into Rome a See also:summary method of working, which has much in common with that of the modern impressionist school; and the sculptors of the Flavian period laid to See also:heart the See also:lesson taught by their successful " illusionism " (to See also:borrow Wickhoff's See also:term). We shall see that this is true of all forms of sculpture—historical sculpture, portraiture and decorative ornament; and we are entitled to See also:rank this Flavian art as the specific creation of imperial Rome, whatever may have been the precise See also:nationality of the individual workers who adorned the new See also:capital of the See also:world. But this phase was of See also:short duration; and the Roman spirit, which in See also:harmony with that of Greece had produced such brilliant results, triumphed under Trajan and found its characteristic expression in the " epic in See also: Along the path thus marked out, Roman art continued to progress; it is true that under the influence of See also:Hadrian there was a brief renaissance of classicism which gave birth to the idealized type of See also:Antinous, and to certain eclectic works which belong to Greek rather than to Roman art; but the historical reliefs which survive from the Antonine period, and more especially the sarcophagi, which reproduce scenes of Greek See also:mythology with a close adherence to the See also:letter but a fresh artistic spirit, show that the new See also:leaven was at work. The main fact underlying the changes of the time was the loss of the true principles of plastic art, which even in Hellenistic times had become obscured by the introduction of pictorial methods into relief-sculpture. See also:Colour, rather than form, now took the highest place in the See also:gamut of artistic values. Painting, indeed, so far as our scanty knowledge goes, was not practised with conspicuous success; but the art of See also:mosaic was carried to an extraordinary degree of technical perfection; and in strictly plastic art the choice of material was often determined by qualities of colour and transparency. For example, See also:porphyry, See also:basalt and See also:alabaster of various hues were used by the sculptor in preference to See also: The portraits of See also:Constantine and his See also:house can no longer be termed naturalistic; they are 'It is very remarkable that the See also:coin-portraits of the Gallic usurper Postumus (A.D. 258-68) are executed in precisely the same style; the coins were struck either at See also:Trier or at See also:Cologne.monumental, both in See also:scale and in conception, and, above all, their rigid " frontality " carries us back at a See also:bound to the See also:primitive art of the East. The classical standard set by the Greek genius had ceased to govern art, although the fund of types which See also:Hellenism had created still furnished subjects to the artist, or was made the vehicle by which the new ideas derived from See also:Christianity were expressed. The Roman spirit was still strong enough to maintain that interest in the human form and the representation of dramatic events which was lacking in the Oriental; but in the monuments of the Constantinian period, such as the narrow friezes of the Arch of Constantine, we can see nothing but the work of artists who had lost See also:touch with true plastic principles, in spite of the ingenious arguments adduced by Riegl. If we are to seek for signs of progress, it must be rather in the domain of architecture, which had never ceased to make advances in dealing with the spatial and constructive problems presented by the great See also:building works of the Empire; it was now called upon to face a fresh task in providing Christians with a See also:fit place for public See also:worship. In the See also:solution of this problem the architects of the 4th century showed a wonderful fertility of resource; but to describe their achievements would be to pass the confines of Roman art in the proper sense of the word. (3) Individual Arts. (a) Architecture.—This See also:branch of the subject may be studied in the See also:article ARCHITECTURE, and illustrations will be found in other articles (CAPITAL; COLUMN; ORDER; TRIUMPHAL ARCH; &c.). Architecture, regarded as a See also:fine art, had been brought by the Greeks to the highest perfection of which it was capable under the limitations which they imposed upon themselves. The Greek temple appeals to the aesthetic sense by the simplicity and harmony of its proportions as well as by the rational See also:correspondence between function and decoration in its several members. On these lines there was no See also:room for progress. It is true that the Etruscans modified the type of the Greek temple and profoundly influenced Roman construction in this respect. The Etruscan temple was not approached on all sides by a See also:low See also:flight of steps, but raised on a high See also:platform (See also:podium) with a See also:staircase in the front; it was broad in proportion to its See also:depth, indeed, in many cases, square; and the temple itself (See also:cella) was faced by a deep See also:portico, which often occupied half the platform. Moreover, as the use of marble for building was unknown in early Italy, wood was employed in construction and terra-cotta in decoration, and this change of material led to a wider spacing of the columns than was possible in Greece. But these alterations in the See also:system of proportions were disadvantageous to aesthetic effect; and the Romans—though they soon ceased (under the influence of the western Greeks) to build temples of purely " Tuscan " type—preserved certain of their features, such as the high platform and deep portico (see ARCHITECTURE, fig. 26). Nor can we regard as felicitous the See also:design of certain Roman temples, such as that of See also:Concord overlooking the Forum, and the sup-posed temple of Augustus (see RoME), which have a broad front (approached in the temple of Concord by a central portico) and narrow sides. The great temples of the Empire were (in general) inspired by Greek models, and need not therefore concern us; but we may See also:notice Hadrian's See also:peculiar design for the See also:double temple of See also:Venus and Rome, with twin cellae placed back to back. To the orders (see ORDER) of Greek architecture the Etruscans added the " Tuscan,"- a simplified Doric, of which an early example has been found at See also:Pompeii, enclosed within the See also:wall of the Casa del Fauno.2 This column, which can scarcely be later than the 6th century B.C., has a smooth See also:shaft with pronounced See also:entasis, a heavy capital with a See also:Scotia between See also:abacus and See also:echinus, and a See also:plain circular See also:base. To the Romans we owe the " Composite " order, so called because it contains features distinctive of the Corinthian and Ionic orders (see ORDER, fig. 14). It is really a variety of the Corinthian, with Ionic volutes inserted in the capital; the earliest known example of its use is seen in the Arch of See also:Titus. The Romans, moreover, made frequent use of the figured capital, which, as 2Romische Mitteilungen (1902), pl. vii. the remains of Pompeii show, was an invention of the later Hellenistic age. Reduced copies of statues are found in the decoration of such capitals in the See also:baths of Caracalla ; the capitals with Victories and trophies in S. Lorenzo Fuori also belonged to a building of See also:pagan times. .
But the specific achievement of the Roman architect was the artistic application of a new set of principles—those which are expressed in the arch, the vault and the See also:dome. The rectilinear buildings of the Greeks, with their direct See also:vertical supports, gave place to vaulted structures in which lateral thrust was called into See also:play. The aesthetic effect of the curves thus brought into prominence was well understood by the Romans; and they were the inventors of the decorative See also:combination of the Greek orders with the See also:arcade. More than this, the erection of vaults and domes of wide span, rendered possible by the use of See also:concrete, gave to the Roman architect the opportunity of dealing artistically with See also:internal spaces. A See also:simple yet grandiose example of this may be found in the See also:Pantheon of Hadrian. Circular buildings were a common feature in Italian architecture;' the temple of See also:Vesta, which doubtless represented the primitive hut or dwelling of the See also: 1); and there is a series of busts which possess a special interest in that some of them have been claimed as portraits of Scipio See also:Africanus. The example in the Museo Capitolino (Plate I. fig. 2), with a modern inscription, though executed in the 2nd century A.D., is clearly copied from fa, famous Republican See also:original. The baldness of the head has been thought to be derived from the technique of the waxen imagines, in which the See also:hair was painted; the presence of a scar above the temple, which has given rise to various theories, merely betokens the unsparing realism of the Republican artist. In monumental sculpture our earliest datable example is the altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, already referred to (Plate II. fig. ro). The ceremonial See also:scene of the suovetaurilia fills the centre of the composition; to the See also:left we see the dismissal of veterans for whom diplomata are being prepared; to the right the troops on active service, both See also:horse and See also:foot, are represented. The artist was clearly inspired by statuary and other types of earlier date, which are grouped in a somewhat loose composition. Augustan art is adequately represented by the Prima Porta statue of the emperor, discovered in 1863 in the Villa of Livia and now in the Braccio Nuovo (Plate III. fig. 17). The attitude of the figure is that of an imperator addressing his army; but there is a characteristic blending of the real with the ideal, for the emperor is not only bareheaded but barefoot, and beside him is a tiny See also:cupid See also:riding on a See also:dolphin, which indicates the descent of the See also:Julian house from Venus. We note, too, how the Roman artist—or the Greek artist interpreting the wishes of the Roman—is scarcely more concerned for the See also:total effect of his work than for the significant details of the decoration. The chasings of the corselet display, as a central subject, the restoration by the See also:Parthian in 20 B.C. of the See also:standards taken from See also:Crassus at Carrhae (53 B.C.). Not content with this, the artist has added a See also:group of personifications indicating sunrise-Sol, Caelus, See also:Aurora and the goddess of the See also:morning See also:dew—as well as See also:Apollo, See also:Diana, Mars and the See also:earth goddess, and two figures symbolical of the western provinces, See also:Gaul and See also:Spain. It is also to be I See Altmann, Die italischen Rundbauten (1906).noted that the statue shows abundant traces of its original polychrome tints—broZvn, yellow, See also:blue, red and See also:pink. It must have been executed later—probably not much later—than 13 B.C., when Augustus returned from the West, and therefore belongs to the same period as the Ara Pacis Augustae, dedicated See also:January 30, 9 B.C. This altar stood in a walled enclosure with two entrances, measuring 1rz by See also:roe metres. The walls, with their See also:plinth, were about 6 metres in height, and were decorated internally with a frieze of garlands and bucrania, and externally with two bands of relief, the See also:lower consisting of conventional scrolls of See also:acanthus varied with other floral motives, and teeming with bird and See also:insect life, the upper showing processions (Plate II. fig. 11) passing from east to west. The most interesting of these is that on the south wall, which included Augustus himself, the Jlamines and the imperial See also:family .2 On the western face, towards which the processions are directed, we find a scene of sacrifice, with a landscape background, in which the ideal figures of See also:senate and See also:people appear. To the east front (apparently) belongs the beautiful group of the earth goddess (Tellus) and the See also:spirits of See also:air and See also:water (Plate II. fig. 13). It is impossible to deny the incongruity of this composition with the realistic procession which adjoins it, and we can only suppose that the artist borrowed the group from some Hellenistic precursor and used it in that blend of the real and ideal which, as we saw, was the keynote of the new imperial art. The lack of public monuments which can be assigned to the Julio-Claudian period is only in See also:part supplied by those of private significance; the most important of these are the sepulchral cippi and other altars, decorated sometimes with figure-subjects, but largely with plant and See also:animal forms rendered with the utmost naturalism. The altar with See also:plane-leaves in the Museo delle Terme (fig. 38), though perhaps not
Redrawn from a photo by See also: So far as bas-relief is concerned, the problem of representing form in open space is here solved. Equally admirable in technique, though of less historical importance, are the circular medallions (tondi) which now adorn the Arch of Constantine, but originally belonged (as the See also:present writer has shown)' to a See also:monument of the Flavian period, perhaps the " temple of the Flavian house " erected by See also:Domitian. The one shown (Plate III. fig. 18) is remarkable in that the head of the emperor has been replaced by a portrait, not of Constantine, but (in all See also:probability) of Claudius Gothicus (A.D. 268-70), who was the first to divert these sculptures from their original destination. Flavian portraits,2 of which two are here figured, —a bust of See also:Vespasian in the Museo delle Terme (Plate I. fig. 4) and a bust, now in the Lateran, found in the See also:tomb of the Haterii, which, as is shown by the snake, represents a physician (Plate I. fig. 5),—must rank as the masterpieces of Roman art. Their extraordinarily lifelike character is due to the fact that the artist, without accumulating unnecessary detail, has contrived to catch the characteristic expression of his subject, and to render it with the utmost technical virtuosity. These portraits differ from the works of the Greek masters, who always subordinated the individual to the type, and therefore gave a less See also:complete impression of reality than the Roman artists. The same tendency has been noted in ornamental work which may be dated to the Flavian period. Wickhoff selected a See also:pilaster from the monument of the Haterii (Plate II. fig. 15) upon which a column entwined with See also:roses is carved. The See also:flowers are not in fact represented with precise fidelity to nature, but the illusion of reality is no less great than in more accurately worked examples. Roman sculpture soon passed the See also:zenith of its achievement. We are not able to assign any historical monuments to the earlier years of Trajan's reign, but the portraits of the emperor betray a certain hardness of touch which makes them less interesting than those of the Flavian period. To the latter part of the reign belong a number of monuments which represent Trajanic art at its best. First and foremost come the reliefs, See also:colossal in scale, which appear to have decorated the walls of Trajan's Forum. Four slabs were removed by Constantine's order and used to adorn the central passage and the shorter sides of the See also:attic of his arch. The first of these (Plate II. fig. 16) shows the victorious See also:charge of the Roman See also:cavalry, with the emperor at its head, against their Dacian enemies. Other fragments of this frieze are extant in the Louvre,3 and a much-restored relief, walled up in the See also:garden of the Villa See also:Medici, shows a Dacian on horseback See also:swimming the See also:Danube with Trajan's See also:Bridge in the background. The composition of the See also:battle-scene is very fine, and the heads of the Dacians are full of character; but, although details of See also:armour, &c., are carefully and accurately reproduced, we see clear signs of technical decadence, both in the fact that the human eye is in many cases represented as though in full face on heads which are shown in See also:profile, and also in the naive See also:attempt to render several files of troops in perspective by means of superposed rows of heads.4 The reliefs of the See also:spiral 'Papers of the British School at Rome, vol. iii. pp. 229 if. See also:Sieve-king (Rom. Mitth. (1907) pp. 345 ff.) believes that four of the medallions only belong to the Flavian period and the See also:rest to Hadrian's reign. 2 On this subject see Mr Crowfoot's See also:paper in See also:Journal of Hellenic Studies, xx. (1900) pp. 31 if. A See also:list of examples is given by Mr See also:Wace in Papers of the British School at Rome, vol. iii. pp. 290 if. ' Mr Wace has recently identified the reliefs which show an emperor sacrificing before the temple of See also:Jupiter Capitolinus as a part of the frieze (Papers of the British School at Rome, iv. pp. 229 ff.). These features make it clear that the reliefs in the Villa Borghese, formerly supposed to belong to an arch of Claudius, are Trajanic; see Papers of the British School at Rome, iii. pp. 215 if. (See also:Stuart See also: Before leaving the Trajanic period a word must be said as to the arch erected at Benevento (see TRIUMPHAL ARCH, fig. 2), from which point a new road—the Via Trajana—ran to See also:Brundisium. The inscription on this arch bears the date A.D. 114, but the prominence given to Hadrian has led to the supposition that the reliefs were executed after his See also:accession. We have already noted that the use of relief as ornament is here carried to excess in the artist's desire to present a summary of Trajan's achievements at See also:home and abroad.6 The arrangement of the panels is calculated and significant. On the side which faces the See also:town of Benevento the subjects have reference to Trajan's work in Rome. On the attic we see, to the left, a group of gods with the Capitoline triad—Jupiter, See also:Juno and See also:Minerva—in the foreground; to the right, Trajan welcomed at the entrance to the Capitol by the goddess See also:Roma, the See also:penates and the consuls. He is accompanied by Hadrian, who is designated by the gesture of Roma as the emperor's successor. The two lowest panels likewise form a single picture. To the right Trajan appears at the entrance of the Forum, where he is welcomed by the praefectus urbi; to the left, with the See also:Curia as background, we see the representatives of senate, knights and people. The central panels symbolize the military and See also:civil aspects of Trajan's See also:government—veterans to left, merchants to right, are the recipients of imperial favour. On the other 5 Thus Cichorius, in his publication of the reliefs, has been able to identify several of the See also:corps which took part in the war; e.g. the " cohorts of Roman citizens " are distinguished from the See also:barbarian auxiliaries by the national emblems on their See also:shields. 6 The significance of these reliefs was first demonstrated by Domaszewski (Jahreshefte See also:des osterreichischen archaologischen Instituts, ii. 1899, pp. 173 ff.); a full See also:account will be found in Mrs Strong's Roman Sculpture, ch. 9. face of the arch we have a series of panels See also:relating to Trajan's work in the provinces. On the attic the' gods of the Danube provinces appear to the left, the submission of See also:Mesopotamia on the right; the lowest panels represent negotiations with Germans (left) and Parthians (right); in the centre (as on the other face) we have a military scene (recruiting in the provinces) to left, balancing the See also:foundation of colonies and growth of the proles See also:Romana on the right. As the above description will show, this arch is, in respect of its significance, the most important monument of Roman historical art. Technically, the reliefs fall somewhat short of the best work of the Flavian period—the long panels of the archway, which represent a sacrifice offered by Trajan and his benefactions to the municipia of Italy, have not the verve of those from the Arch of Titus, but are at least as fine as the works executed for Trajan's Forum. With the accession of Hadrian—the " Greekling," as he was called by his contemporaries—a short-lived renaissance of classicism set in. The eclectic modifications of Greek statuary types which it called forth do not fall within our province; but it should be noticed that in portraiture the most important work of this period was the idealized type of Antinous, here represented by a famous example (Plate I. fig. 6) in the Louvre, which invests the favourite of Hadrian with a divinity expressed in the terms of Hellenic art as well as a pathos which belongs to his own time.' The historical monuments of this and the following reign are few in number, and lack the pregnancy of meaning and vigour of See also:execution which distinguish those of the Trajanic period; mention may be made of three reliefs in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, one of which represents the See also:apotheosis of an empress, and of the panels in the Palazzo Rondinini shown by the See also:analogy of a medallion of See also:Antoninus See also:Pius to belong to his time. This is also the place to take note of the ideal figures symbolical of the subject peoples of the Empire. Under Trajan Roman sculptors had produced the fine statues of Dacian captives which now adorn the Arch of Constantine; to the Hadrianic period belong the idealized figures of provinces, classical in pose and See also:motive, several of which are in the Palazzo de Conservatori? We pass on to the period of Marcus Aurelius and See also:Commodus, in which Roman art underwent a further transformation. The earliest monument of the time which calls for our attention is the base of the column (now destroyed) erected in See also:honour of Antoninus Pius. Two of its faces are here shown (Plate IV. figs. 21 and 22), and the contrast is remarkable between the classicistic representation of the apotheosis of Antoninus and See also:Faustina, witnessed by the ideal figures of Rome and the Campus See also:Martius (holding an See also:obelisk), and the realistic treatment of the decursio, a ceremony performed by detachments of the praetorian guard on horse and foot. We note the endeavour of the Roman sculptor to express more than his See also:medium will allow, and his inadequate grasp of the laws of proportion and perspective. Discarding the classical standard and its conventions, the artist disposes his figures like a See also:child's toys, and, when confronted with the problem of the background, waves it aside and reduces the indication of the place of action to a few projecting ledges on which his puppets are supported. The reliefs of the Column of Marcus Aurelius suffer by comparison with those of Trajan's Column. The story which the designer had to tell was doubtless less definite in outline; we cannot trace, as in the former instance, the march of events towards a dramatic See also:climax, and there is some reason to think that, although the two bands of relief, separated (as on Trajan's Column) by a figure of Victory, correspond generally with the " Germanic " and " Sarmatic " wars of Marcus down to A.D. 175, the narrative is not strictly See also:chronological; thus the fall of See also:rain ascribed by Christian tradition to the prayers of the " Thundering " See also:Legion 1 It is in the portraits of the Hadrianic period that we first meet with the plastic rendering (in marble) of the iris and pupil of the eye; on the significance of this See also:convention see above. a On these see See also:Lucas's article in Jahrb. des k. deutschen arch. Instituts (19oo), pp. i if., and Mrs Strong, Roman Sculpture, pp. 243 if.(Plate IV. fig. 24) is represented at a very early See also:stage, whereas our historians place it towards the close of the war. The figures are smaller and at the same time more crowded than those upon Trajan's Column, and the landscape is less intelli. gently rendered. The type of the rain-See also:god, which is without doubt the creation of the Roman sculptor, is boldly conceived but scarcely artistic. Still the reliefs show that the designers of the time were making vigorous efforts to think for them-selves, and for this reason possess a higher value than the more conventional panels now distributed between the attic of the Arch of Constantine and the Palazzo dei Conservatori, which seem to have decorated a triumphal arch set up in or after A.D. 176.3 The portraiture of the time also shows the invasion of new principles. Even before the reign of Marcus we find a tendency to emphasize the contrast between hair and flesh, the face often showing signs of high See also:polish. In the latter half of the 2nd century the contrast is heightened by a new method of treating the hair, which is rendered as a See also:mass of curls deeply undercut and honeycombed with See also:drill-holes; a fine example is the Commodus of the Palazzo dei Conservatori. The aim of the sculptor is to obtain an ornamental effect by the violent contrast of light and dark—an See also:adaptation for the purposes of plastic art of the See also:chiaroscuro which more properly belongs to painting. This tendency may be seen at work in all branches of sculpture. The sarcophagi of the Antonine and later periods, with their crowded compositions and deep shadows, have the same pictorial effect; and in pure ornament the vivid illusionism of Flavian art disappears, and, though plant-forms are lavishly used—from the time of Trajan onwards we note a growing distaste for pure outlines, which are hidden beneath all-pervading acanthus foliage the interest of the sculptor comes to See also:lie more and more in intticacy of See also:pattern, produced by the complementary effect of See also:lights and shadows. An instance of this may be found in a pilaster now in the Lateran Museum (fig. 39), which Wickhoff justly contrasts with the See also:rose-See also:pillar from the monument of the Haterii.' It is all-important to remember that (as Strzygowski has pointed out) 4 it is not true shadow which is contrasted with the high lights in later Roman ornament; if so, the plastic effect of the See also:free members would be heightened, whereas the See also:reverse is actually the See also:case, for even the figures on sarcophagi, worked in the round though they be, do not stand out from the background—which indeed is practically abolished—but seem rather to form elements in a pattern. The reason is that pure darkness is set off against the high lights, and the whole surface being thus broken up, there remains no impression of depth. Under Septimius Severus and his successors, Roman art drifts steadily in its new direction. The reliefs of his arch at the entrance to the Forum represent the emperor's campaigns in the East in a See also:compromise between bird's-eye perspective and the " continuous " style which cannot be called successful; a This series of panels is discussed in Papers of the British School at Rome, vol. iii. p. 251 if. 4 Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen (1904), p. 271. (Drawn from photo, Moscioni.) Ornament. a better example of the art of this period is to be seen in the relief (Plate IV. fig. 20) now in the Palazzo See also:Sacchetti, recently published by Mr A. J. B. Wace,l which probably represents the presentation of Caracalla to the senate as the destined successor of his See also:father. The squat figures of the senators, their grouping, which, though not lacking in naturalism and a certain effectiveness, is not in its main lines aesthetic, and the lavish use of deeply drilled ornament, are features which leave no doubt as to the period to which this work should be assigned. Rome, however, could still boast a school of portrait-sculptors, whose work was of no See also:ordinary merit. The See also:bronze statue of Septimius Severus, which passed into the Somzee collection, has been pronounced by Furtwangler to be of much earlier date, except for the head of the emperor, and we cannot therefore feel confidence in using it as a measure of the artistic achievements of Severus's reign; but the busts of Caracalla, which represent the See also:tyrant in his later years, are masterly both in conception and in execution. In the second See also:quarter of the 3rd century A.D., when the Empire was torn' by internal strife, threatened in its very existence by the inroads of barbarism, and hastening towards economic ruin, art could no longer flourish, and monuments of sculpture become scarce, if we except portraits and sarcophagi. The busts of this period are easily distinguished by the treatment of the hair and See also:beard, which seem to have been closely clipped, and are indicated by a multitude of fine See also:chisel strokes on a roughened surface. But, rough as these technical methods may seem, the artists of the time used them with wonderful effect, and the portraits of the emperor Philip (A. D. 244–49) in the Braccio Nuovo, and an unknown Roman in the Capitoline Museum (Plate I. fig. 7), are hardly to be surpassed in their delineation of See also:craft and See also:cruelty. Amongst the sarcophagi of the 3rd century we select, in prefer See also:ince to those adorned with scenes of Greek mythology, the fine example in the Museo delle Terme (formerly in the Ludovisi collection) decorated with a melee of Romans and Orientals (Plate IV. fig. 23); the principal figure—whose portrait is also to be seen in the Capitoline Museum—has been identified by Mr A. H. S. Yeames as C. Furius Sabinius See also:Aquila Tilnesitheus, the See also:minister and father-in-See also:law of See also:Gordian III. (d. A.D. 244). Even after the See also:middle of the century, when the Empire was for a time dismembered, portrait-sculpture put forth fresh evidences of life and vigour. Gallienus, who was himself a See also:dilettante and doubtless largely endowed with See also:personal vanity, seems to have called into being a naturalistic school of sculptors, who harked back to the models of the later Antonine period, so that it is not always easy to distinguish the busts of his time from those of a much earlier date. The Louvre bust of the emperor (Plate I. fig. 8) will serve as a type of these works. But this singular renaissance was as short-lived as the eclectic revival of classicism under Hadrian. It is remarkable that the portrait of Gallienus is the last which can be identified by truly individual traits. The period of See also:storm and stress which followed his death has left little or no monumental material for the historian of sculpture; and when the See also:curtain again rises on the art of the new monarchy founded by Diocletian and perfected by Constantine, we seem to move in a new world. The East has triumphed over the West. Just as in See also:Egyptian and, speaking generally, in all oriental art, before the See also:revelation of true plastic principles; which we owe to the Greek genius, the law of " frontality " was universally operative, i.e. the pose of sculptured figures was rigidly symmetrical and without lateral curvature, so the portraits of Constantine and his successors are discerned at a glance by their stiff pose and fixed and stony stare. The fact is that the See also:secret of organic structure has been lost; the bust (or statue) is no longer a true portrait, a See also:block of marble made to pulsate with the life of the subject represented, but a monument. It was thus that the absolute monarchs of the Empire, before whom their subjects prostrated themselves in See also:mute See also:adoration, preferred to I Papers of the British School at Rome, iv. pl. xxxiv., from which fig. 15 is taken.be portrayed; and we cannot help recalling Ammianues description 2 of the entry of See also:Constantius II. into Rome (Alt 356). The emperor rode in a See also:golden See also:chariot, turning his head neither to the right not to the left, but gazing impassively before him " tanquam figinentum hominis." The description fits such a portrait as that of an unknown personage of the 4th century in the Capitoline Museum (Plate I. fig. 9), which has found a panegyrist in Riegl. It remains to note that the narrow bands of relief on the Arch of Constantine, some of which probably date from the reign of Diocletian,3 partake of the same monumental character as the single statues of the time. Where the nature of the subject permits, as in the case of the reliefs here represented (Plate III. fig. 19), the' frontality of the central figure, and the strict symmetry of the grouping, which imparts an almost geometrical regularity to the main lines of the composition, are calculated for architectonic rather than for plastic effect. The breath of organic life has ceased to inspire the marble. We have confined ourselves in the above See also:section to tracing the course of development in what we may See also:call official Roman sculpture, represented in the main, as is natural, by the monuments of the capital. The products of See also:local See also:schools cannot here be treated in detail. The difficult problems which they raise are best illustrated by the case of " Trojan's trophy " at Adam-Klissi in the Dobruja. Although the very name of the monument might seem to furnish sufficient evidence of its date, the late See also:Professor Furtwangler stoutly maintained that Trajan did but restore a monument dating from 29 B.C.4 He called attention to the uniformity in style of the See also:grave-monuments of soldiers from See also:north Italy, serving in the legions of the See also:Rhine and Danube; these date from the early imperial period, and represent (according to Furtwangler) a traditional " legionary style." It may be admitted that they are eminently Italian in their hard realistic character; but the tradition was not See also:extinct in the Trajanic period, so that the analogy between these monuments and its rudely carved figures is 'inconclusive, and the ornament of the trophy, which is far from being homogeneous, contains, as Studniczka 5 has observed, oriental elements which could not possibly be found in sculpture of the 1st century B.C. Local tradition may also be traced, e.g. in See also:southern See also:France, where the Hellenic influence which penetrated by way of Massilia was still strongly See also:felt under the Julio-Claudian dynasty, as the sculptures of the tomb of the Julii at St Remy and the triumphal See also:arches of See also:Orange and See also:Carpentras suffice to prove. Gallo-Roman art, on the other hand, has a See also:physiognomy of its own, whose outlines have been traced by M. Salomon See also:Reinach (Antiquites nationales; bronzes figures de la Gaule romaine, Introduction). In the Rhineland we find, at a later period, a singular school of realistic sculptors at work; the museum at Trier contains a number of their grave-monuments decorated with scenes of daily life .6 Nor must we omit to mention the Palmyrene sculptors of the 3rd century A.D., whose portrait-statues give us the See also:clue to the origin of the " frontal" style of the Constantinian period? (c) Painting and Mosaic.—The arts whose proper medium is colour enjoyed a popularity with the ancients and with the Romans, no less than with the Greeks, at least as great as that of sculpture; we need go no further for evidence of this than the statement of Pliny 8 that See also:Julius Caesar paid eighty talents (£20,000) for the " See also:Ajax and See also:Medea " of See also:Timomachus of See also:Byzantium, which he placed in his newly built forum. But we are in a difficult position when we try 2 Amm. Marc. xvi. 10. 10. 3 See Mr Wace's article in Papers of the British School at Rome, iv. pp. 27o if. ' His view is accepted by Mrs Strong (Roman Sculpture, p. 99). ' " Tropaeum Trajani " (Abhandlungen der sdchs. Gesellsch. der Wissenschaften, xxii., pp. 88 ff.). s See also:Hettner, Illustrierter Fi hrer durch das National Museum zu Trier (1903), pp. 2 if. ' Some fine examples are in the See also:Jacobsen collection; see See also:Arndt-Bruckmann, Griechische and romische Portraits, pls. 59, 6o. 8 H.N. xxxv. 136. to estimate the artistic value of the masterpieces of ancient painting, since time has destroyed the originals, and it is but rarely that , we can even recover the outlines of a famous composition from decorative reproductions. For the history of Greek painting we have in Pliny's Natural History a fairly full See also:literary record; but this fails us when we come to Roman times, nor do original works, worthy to be ranked with the monuments of Roman historical sculpture, See also:supply the want. Painting in Italy was throughout its early history dependent on Greek models, and reflected the phases through which the art passed in Greece. Thus the frescoes which adorn the walls of Etruscan chamber-tombs show an unmistakable analogy with Attic See also:vase-paintings. The neutral background, the use of conventional flesh-tones, and the predominant interest shown by the artists in line as opposed to colour, clearly point to the source of their inspiration; and the fine sarcophagus at See also:Florence' depicting a combat between Greeks and See also:Amazons, in which we first trace the use of naturalistic flesh-tints, though it bears an Etruscan inscription, can hardly have been the handiwork of native artists. Roman tradition tells of early wall-paintings at See also:Ardea and See also:Lanuvium, which existed " before the foundation of Rome ";2 of these the Etruscan frescoes mentioned above may serve to give some impression. We also hear of See also:Fabius Pictor, who earned his cognomen by decorating the temple of See also:Salus on the Quirinal (302 B.c.); and a few more names are preserved by Pliny on account of the trivial anecdotes which attached to them. The chief works of specifically Roman painting in Republican times (other than the frescoes which adorned the walls of temples) were those exhibited by successful generals on the occasion of a triumph; thus we hear that in 263 B.C. M. See also:Valerius Messalla was the first to display in the Curia Hostilia such a battle-piece, representing his victory over See also:Hiero II. of Syracuse and the Carthaginians' We may perhaps form some See also:idea of these paintings from the fragment of a See also:fresco discovered in a sepulchral vault on the Esquiline in 1889,4 which appears to date from the 3rd century B.C. This painting represents scenes from a war between the Romans and an enemy who may almost certainly (from their equipment) be identified as See also:Samnites; the names of the commanders are indicated, and amongst them is a Q. Fabius, probably Q. Fabius See also:Maximus Rullianus, who played a part in the. third Samnite War. The scenes are superposed in tiers; the background is neutral, the colour-scale simple, and there is but little attempt at perspective; but we note the files of superposed heads in the representation of an army, which are found at a later date in Trajanic sculpture. We pass from this isolated example of early Roman painting to the decorative frescoes of Rome, See also:Herculaneum and Pompeii, which introduce us to the new world conquered by Hellenistic artists. The See also:scheme of colour is no longer conventional, but natural flesh-tints and local colour are employed; the " artist understands," as Wickhoff puts it, how to " concentrate the picture in space " instead of isolating the figures on a neutral background; he struggles (not always successfully) with the difficult problems of linear and aerial perspective, and contrives in many instances to give " See also:atmosphere to his scene; the modelling of his figures is often excellent; finally, he can, when need requires, produce an effective See also:sketch by compendious methods. It must be premised that this style of wall-decoration was a new thing in the Augustan period. In the Hellenistic age the walls of palaces were veneered with slabs of many-coloured marble (crustae) ; and in humbler dwellings these were imitated in fresco. This " incrustation " style is found in a few houses at Pompeii, such as the Casa di Sallustio, built in the 2nd century B.c.; but before the fall of the Republic it had given place to what is known as the " architectural " style. In this the painter is no longer content to reproduce in stucco ' Journal of See also:Hell. See also:Stud. iv. (1883), pls. See also:xxxvi.–xxxviii. 2 Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 18. 3 Ibid. xxxv. 22. 4 Bullettino Comunale (1889), pls. xi. xii. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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